Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Walking The Dog

I love walking my dog. I love walking, full-stop. So having a dog that needs walking every day works out pretty well for me.

Today was the perfect dog walk. It's Tuesday, which is always my day off during the week, since Tuesday is Victims practice night. A lot of the time during the week I have to squeeze in an hour's walk with Bonzo before I hurry off to work. It's boring having to walk to a time-schedule, mainly since I have to stick to a planned route that I know will take around an hour to complete. This isn't much fun, either for me or for Bonzo I imagine. My favourite kind of walking is when you can just aimlessly walk in no particular direction, just taking each turn as it comes, with no worry about when you have to start turning back towards home.

Today was one of those days. It's not that cold out at the moment, around three degrees. In fact, compared to how it's been recently, that feels pretty warm. It's grey out though, and the streets are covered with slush, which makes the going hard at times. But with a whole afternoon without any plans ahead of me, that was no hindrance.

With my Ipod set to shuffle, the two of us set off, side by side, and returned over two hours later. When I say this walk was the perfect dog walk, I mean that in that it involved three of my favourite things. Walking. Music. Coffee.

The walk took us past Bromma airport and around the Solvalla horse-racing track, through the area of Rissne and across the fields towards Sundbybergs cemetery, around the lake Lötsjon, through Sundbyberg centrum and then back home. I picked up a pretty great cup of coffee along the way from Gröna Stugan, and enjoyed it whilst me and Bonzo stood and watched the Canadian Geese flapping around in the lake.

You might conclude that I'm easily amused. I am. I don't think I'll have any problem with being a pensioner later on in life. In fact, I look forward to it.

What made this walk today particularly great, was the soundtrack to it that my Ipod randomly picked out. It was the perfect soundtrack to the perfect walk. I thought I'd share it with you.

Fortyonesixtyonefortythree – Canvas

His n' Hers – Some Girls

The Noise – From Ashes Rise

Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space – Spiritualized

Here For You – Neil Young

Uneventful Days – Slight Slappers

Come Inside – The Horror The Horror

Vampire – Sebadoh

Coffee Jingle – Garrison Keller & Jearlyn Steele

Sewn Mouth Secrets – Soilent Green

I Can't Stop - Victims

Flat Velocity Curve – Prolapse

Highly Enlightened – Yaphet Kotto

Regenerate – Eyelid

Dagar Utan Ljus – Victims

Raiford (The Felon Wind) – Earth

Justified And Ancient Seems A Long Time Ago – The KLF

We All, Us Three, Will Ride – Palace Music

Fourth Song – Crude

Suffering The Tyrants – Satyricon

Eclipse – Pink Floyd

Pigs (Three Different Ones) – Pink Floyd

Karpis – The Jesus Lizard

Delete The Elite – Meanwhile

Elephant Man – Mastodon

Nothing To Anything – Reality Crisis

Oh Bury Me Not – Johnny Cash

Army Of God – Behind Enemy Lines

People Get Ready – Little Jimmy Scott

Line 1 – Swing Kids

Bolden Boke Boy – Will Oldham

Facistionesta – Shut The Fuck Up

Wild Dogs Of The Thunderbolt – Set Fire To Flames

Today has been a really pleasant day off from work. Last night, some girl who I refused service to at the bar, on the grounds of her being a drunken twat, shouted at me upon leaving in a huff that I was the worst bartender ever, and that I suck camel's cock! I guess you can't be on-side with everyone haha. The nice thing about having a dog is that no matter what shite you have to deal with at work, or wherever else, your dog is always there, happy to be by your side. Who ever said that dog is man's best friend, was spot on!

Record of the Week

Lifewreck - S/T

Podcast

Dagens Ord

Flax - A Swedish word for luck.

Hello...

This is a blog about life playing in a hardcore band...

...and some other stuff.

I started playing in bands when I was 14. I quit school when I was 18, around the same time I formed Raging Speedhorn. We played our first show in our home town, Corby, England in August 99 and our final show in Yamaguchi, Japan in November 08.

During that time I toured the world, moved to Stockholm, Sweden, got married and got a dog. And then we got a daughter.

These days I play in Victims, Diagnosis? Bastard! and Battle of Santiago. I also mess around with another couple of bands.

I managed a "hip" little bar on Södermalm for a few years but turns out that's a youth's game and I'm not that young anymore... So now I'm back in school, trying my best to make something of myself. Again.

The gaps in my schedule are filled working at a homeless shelter which is one of the best jobs I've ever had.

I spend most of my money on records and my free time going to gigs, drinking caffiene, watching football and walking my dog.